Como Leads Crowley in Queens

As of this morning, it looked like Republican Anthony Como had edged out Democrat Elizabeth Crowley to win yesterday’s special election for a City Council seat in Queens.

According to the Board of Elections, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, the results are:

Anthony Como: 2,352 votes (31.71 percent of the vote)

Elizabeth Crowley: 2,282 votes (30.77 percent)

Thomas Ognibene: 2,031 votes (27.38 percent)

Charles Ober: 752 votes (10.14 percent)

There are still 196 paper ballots that need to be counted, and to further complicate things, ballots can be sent in as late as June 10, according to Liz.

This result of this election, which was conducted to replace former Councilman Dennis Gallagher, is a decent sign for the Republicans, who will be running a State Senate race in this part of Queens later this year. The incumbent, Republican Serf Maltese, is thought to be in serious danger, since he barely won re-election against a little-known Democratic challenger in 2006.

The special election was a different race in different circumstances, obviously. But if Queens Republicans turned out for Como, who works for Maltese, it suggests if nothing else that they’ll be motivated to turn out for Maltese as well.

The result was also a bad sign for the Queens Democratic organization. Elizabeth Crowley is the cousin of Representative Joe Crowley, the Queens County Democratic leader. If she is defeated–and it looks likely, at least, that she will be–it doesn’t speak well of the power of the storied Queens machine.

Finally, Charles Ober, who was endorsed by the New York Times, lost soundly, demonstrating, if nothing else, that Middle Village is a long way from the Upper West Side.